Whelan’s goal a rare highlight

New book tells of club glory but forgettable days with the Ireland squad with much of the hurt in his career coming while on international duty

I
t will be surprising if Ronnie Whelan doesn’t set out for Russia this morning
with anything other than a look which says he’s been there and done that.
Nobody will know more about dealing with the infuriating bureaucracy, an
enduring legacy of the Soviet days, even if he sometimes has travelled in a
gilded cage.

Whelan was first in Moscow playing for Ireland in 1985 and he is just back
from a cruise around Russia’s ports of the Baltic Sea where he was able to
relax most of the time and then do a question and answer session with the
guests on board — an earner in Jack Charlton parlance.

The golden era at Anfield inevitably dominates those exchanges, but when it
comes to Ireland it is the goal against Russia in the 1988 European
Championship and the competition itself.